Criticism of Naive Innocence

Blake is a poet with a revolutionary spirit; he condemns the very traditions and beliefs that keep imagination and freedom in bondage. He is against the vices of his society and talks about hidden powers in man. Blake talks about four states of being; he does not approve of staying in the first state, Beulah, which is a stage of passivity and emphasizes the necessity of passing through the second state,Experience or Generation, since it is an active state that leads to Organized Innocence. One falls to the hell of Ulro if he does not pass the second state successfully. Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience show the two contrary states of the soul and they depict the necessity of passing through the first two states to achieve higher innocence. Each song of innocence has its counterpart in experience that further stresses the importance of facing difficulties and trying to overcome them in experience. The Book of Thel is about Thel who is afraid of experience as a prelude to a higher state while Oothoon in Visions of the Daughters of Albion enters experience by breaking the bonds of Urizen.